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Overview

Copper, nickel, zinc, lead, tin, and aluminium, six main industrial metals, had deficits in first-half 2016, according to World Bureau of Metal Statistics figures. The London Metal Exchange’s LMEX Index, which tracks their performance as a single package, rose 9.5 percent so far this year after three years of losses. Zinc has led advances with a more-than-40-percent rally whilst copper and lead lagged.
China reported 6.7-percent second-quarter eco-nomic growth helped by a government credit expan-sion. A private purchasing managers’ index published by Caixin magazine jumped to 50.6 from June’s 48.6, the highest since February 2015.
London-based research service Timetric said it anticipates Peru’s base metal production from copper, zinc and lead mines to grow to 4 million tonnes from 2015 to 2020. It said copper production was 1.4 million tonnes in 2014, whilst zinc was 1.3 million tonnes and lead was 278,000 tonnes.
In the U.S, payrolls expanded by 255,000 in July, the 70th consecutive employment-growth month. This follows June’s 292,000-job growth report and keeps alive the possibility of a 2016 Federal Reserve interest-rate rise. The second-quarter U.S. economy grew by 1.2 percent annually, as inventories fell for the first time since 2011. But a spike in consumer spending indicated underlying strength.
The Bank of England launched its largest stimu-lus package since the financial crisis on concerns the Brexit vote could subvert growth. It downgraded its UK economic-growth forecast but stopped short of predicting recession. The BoE cut its benchmark in-terest rate by 25 basis points to a record-low 0.25 percent, and expanded other stimuli. A £70-billion private sector bond-buying programme is to begin in September.
The UK’s April-to-June industrial output rose on-quarter by 2.1 percent, but slowed on-month to 0.1 percent by June. The building sector entered re-cession as second-quarter infrastructure output and house building drooped. Construction shrank by 0.7 percent following a 1.1-percent first quarter fall, whilst output declined by 1.4 percent on-year. Still, retail sales soared on-month by 5.9 percent as shoppers went on a July spending spree.
Without mentioning interest rates, the U.S. Federal Reserve’s vice chairman noted that the Fed is close to hitting its targets for U.S. employment growth and 2-percent inflation. He said this year's jobs-growth pace, although slower than in 2015, was more than enough for the labour market to continue to improve.